Posted on 02/03/2010 4:40:25 PM PST by FlJoePa
Man attacked by sharks, dies
A kite surfer died today after suffering shark bite wounds. Around 4:15 this afternoon a Martin County Lifeguard noticed an injured kite surfer in the water at Stuart Beach near Hutchinson Island. The lifeguard grabbed his rescue board and paddled out to the victims through today's rough waters. When the lifeguard reached the victims he found sharks circling the injured man.
The lifeguard grabbed the victim, who appeared to have multiple shark bite wounds, pulled him onto his board and paddled back to the shore where he immediately began cpr. Martin county rescue units then transported the man to Martin Memorial North Hospital.
Martin county sheriff's office is on scene conducting a death investigation.
Martin county sheriff’s office is on scene conducting a death investigation.
This is America, so I hope they charge somebody with a crime... Somebody has to pay. Maybe they can charge the wet suit manufacturer with negligent homicide.
Yes, the lifeguard was amazingly brave to swim into the midst of circling sharks. My hat off to him or her!
Sounds pretty self-explanatory to me.
I shark fish down here is southern California and have seen shark breaches on more than 2 occasions close to surfers..
You have to give that life guard tons of credit swimming into bloody water and frenzied sharks.. awesome
Well, I think the portion that is “still developing” is the story of the lifeguard who went into technically unguarded waters with dozens of sharks to try and rescue the victim. I’m sure his story will be pretty amazing.
If true, this guy makes Eddie Aikau look like an average Jooe lifeguard...and that is saying a LOT...
Maybe the sharks will be served a subpoena
to appear at the coroners inquest.
Yes Sir, he did have nutz!
hey - that shark should know better'n to mess with a Catahoula! (or is it a Blue Heeler?)
That life guard - too not only swim into bloody waters with circling sharks but to still take the injured, bleeding man, and drag him back through that - making himself a very real target too! - Whoa.
Lifeguard is a major hero, no matter the outcome of the man’s shark wounds.
It’s a blue heeler. I have to agree, that lifeguard was brave. Wow.
I’ve lived in So Cal and Fla. I’ve been in the ocean in both places. I’ve crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific by ship. They’re very, very big. I like the oceans, they’re nice to look at.
There’s lots of strange and hostile things in the oceans. There are lots of things in the oceans that want to kill and eat you. Lot’s of creepy things brushing up against you. You’re just food to them.
The oceans are vast and infinite. You are smaller than a grain of sand in the ocean. The oceans don’t care about you. You are nothing to the oceans. You’re just a tidbit of food or flotsam.
Run or swim for your life. Danger, Danger, you’re going to die!
I live a block from the beach in Jupiter and I always go in the ocean whenever I go to the beach, but it is usually a very brief swim. News copters will show (usually in the summer) dozens of sharks in very shallow water. When I see that, I stay away.
I enlarged the referenced words. It seems that there was only one "victim"; did I miss something?
I think it is a typo on the part of the TV Station. One victim from everything I have heard reported.
RIP.
Stuart man, 38, identified as kite surfer killed by sharks off Stuart Beach Village
By Michael LaForgia
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 11:06 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010
A man was killed by sharks in a rare fatal attack this afternoon in the waters off Stuart, authorities said.
Stephen Howard Schafer, 38, of Stuart was kite surfing south of Stuart Beach about 4:15 p.m. when the sharks attacked him, according to Bureau Chief Doug Killane of Martin County Fire-Rescue and Martin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Rhonda Irons.
A lifeguard through his binoculars spotted the man floating about a quarter-mile offshore in an unguarded stretch of ocean, Irons said. The lifeguard paddled to him on a rescue board, pulled the man away from the sharks and carried him back to shore.
Rescue workers gave the man CPR before paramedics brought him to Martin Memorial Hospital, where he died.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office was investigating the death, said sheriff’s Capt. Mark McKinley.
“I’ve been here 25 years,” McKinley said. “To my knowledge, this is the first shark-related fatality we’ve seen.”
Sheriff’s deputies are trying to reach relatives of the man, a Jensen Beach resident who appeared in his 30s, McKinley said.
It wasn’t immediately clear tonight whether the beach would be open Thursday.
Bizarre - unsuccessful ‘jump the shark’ event.
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